DGCA issues show cause notice to SpiceJet, Air India questioning eligibility of pilots to fly during dense fog period in Delhi

Dense fog forces diversion of nearly 60 flights at Delhi airport in three days

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on January 4 issued a show cause notice to Air India and SpiceJet for 'rostering non-CAT III compliant pilots' during the foggy season in Delhi, which resulted in more diversions of the flights from the national capital.

The notice was issued after more than 50 Delhi airport-bound flights were diverted due to low visibility on December 24-25 and December 27-28, the aviation regulatory stated.

CAT III or category III is an instrument landing system (ILS) that allows aircraft to land in low visibility situations where the visibility is 50m, like during rains, dense fog or, in snow. “The first few days of the fog season every year are a bit tough as CAT III compliant pilots are occupied in other sectors.

Officials in Delhi Airport, which currently has only one CAT III compliant runway, had said 58 IGIA-bound flights were diverted between the midnights of December 24-25 and 27-28.

Meanwhile, several Delhi-bound flights were diverted due to the unavailability of trained pilots to land in dense fog season. 50 out of the total 58 flights that were diverted between December 25 midnight were due to the "airlines not rostering pilots who are trained to land in extremely poor visibility at airports," the data showed.

IndiGo had a maximum number of flights diverted due to this.